Ratings game

Monday

Feb 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2012 at 10:23 AM

'Best of' lists have been a favorite of magazines for decades, and have become even more popular in an age of bite-sized online information. But college rankings, in particular, have come under fire by critics who say that they have led colleges to tailor their goals and policies with an eye toward boosting their rankings, and even, in extreme cases, to administrators falsifying data to gain an edge.

'Best of' lists have been a favorite of magazines for decades, and have become even more popular in an age of bite-sized online information. But college rankings, in particular, have come under fire by critics who say that they have led colleges to tailor their goals and policies with an eye toward boosting their rankings, and even, in extreme cases, to administrators falsifying data to gain an edge.

Annual lists, such as the nearly 30 year-old “America’s Best Colleges” from U.S. News and World Report and “Best College Values” from Kiplinger’s, rank colleges based on such factors as SAT scores and grade-point averages of applicants.

Schools that attract high-scoring students on entrance exams and turn down a larger percentage of those who apply, for example, win points.

Critics say that as one result, some colleges are encouraging students who aren’t a good fit to apply just to boost their “selectivity” numbers. Colleges also are giving a greater percentage of scholarships than they did in the mid-1990s based on academic merit rather than on financial need, which critics say hurts deserving lower-income students while giving unneeded assistance to affluent kids.

In some extreme cases, colleges are cheating the data to make themselves look better. Early this year, a senior administrator at California liberal arts college, Claremont McKenna, resigned after it was disclosed that he had submitted fake college-entrance-exam scores for years in a bid to goose the school’s rankings on annual “best of” lists. As a result, Kiplinger’s said it is removing Claremont McKenna — which had been ranked no. 18 on its best-value liberal arts college list — from its 2011-2012 ranking.

The irony of all this? High school counselors and students say they don’t even think the rankings are that important. It seems to be mostly the colleges that are fighting amongst themselves in a race to beat each other on the lists.

Every institution likes to gain bragging rights, and objective criteria always are welcome for students and parents faced with the daunting task of choosing the best school.

But these lists should be examined carefully to make sure they’re based on hard-to-fudge factors.